Shadow: A BatmanYoung Justice Story
by MediumBatLevel
Summary: The Bats meet an unexpected guest while on patrol, meanwhile Gotham Academy gets a new student. Rated T for space to work in.
1. The Encounter

_Gotham City_

It was a particularly chilly night in Gotham city, the wind making it feel colder than before. Only a few brave people milled about the streets, for night was falling. The setting sun elongating the shadows in the already dark alleyways. In one particular alleyway three men huddled around a small fire, the flames licking the inside of a metal barrel.

"We should get going," one of the scrawnier three said, glancing around nervously, "the Bat comes out at night."

"Ah, don't be so paranoid Jerry, maybe we'll get to meet 'is new little partner," a second man said to the scrawny man, now known as Jerry.

"Who, Robin?" The third man joins in the conversation.

"No you dimwit!" The second man exclaims in exasperation, "They're calling her Batgirl, heard the Big 'Ol Bat finally took her under his wing," he paused snickering at his own joke, "after a while of her free-lancing."

"So there's more reason we should get going before it gets too dark." The first man, Jerry, says. At this point very little sunlight was entering the alley, and the fire was providing a majority of light. The men murmur their agreements as they start to make their way towards the exit of the alley. The fire flickers, casting erratic shadows around the alley, then dies completely.

"Crap!" Jerry exclaims loudly while the other two start spinning around anxiously "H-h-he's here, he's coming for us!" In the darkness one of the men starts backing up towards where he thought the entrance to the alley is only to bump into something hard and metallic. The man turns around with wide eyes as he is pulled further into the shadows giving out a short yelp. The two others glance in the direction of the noise, both gulping noisily. They see a shadow of a man walking towards them, both releasing a sigh of relief

"Quit messing with us man!" The person standing next to Jerry exclaims, a look of relief washing over his face. The shadow continues to walk agonizingly slowly towards them, stopping in a patch of light being cast by the now rising moon. Jerry and his friend both let out an audible gasp as they see the outline of what appears to be a man wearing thick, metal-plated clothes and an attached hood, with what they assumed to be a handle of a sword sticking out behind his back.

"Aaaaaah!" they both scream simultaneously, running in any direction away from the man.

 _A rooftop several blocks away_

"Batman, this is Batgirl, come in Batman." A lean figure crouching on a ledge of a tall building speaks, holding a hand to her ear.

"I read you Batgirl." A deep, gravelly voice responds in her ear.

"I heard a scream a few blocks to my east, should I moved towards it or, like, ya' know, I don't have to or anything." Batgirl replies with a tone emphasizing Batman's finality in the matter.

"Be careful." As soon as the sentence was finished Batgirl jumped off the roof she was occupying and shot her high-power grapnel gun in the direction she needed to move in. Mid-air, she caught sight of two men running scared from a dark alleyway. Frowning, she detached her grapnel and dropped to the roof below her, using her cape at the last second to soften her landing. She started running and jumping from roof to roof until she was positioned above the alley she saw the men running from. Her frown only deepened when she saw a man tied up and unconscious, a wanted poster with his face on it pinned to the wall next to him. She jumped down and walked cautiously towards the man and the poster, which upon further inspection was pinned to the wall with some sort of metal shaped in a lighting bolt with sharpened edges.

"This is something weird," she said, hand moving up to her cowl again, "you might want to check this out."

"Stay where you are Batgirl, I'm on my way." Batman said through the built in communicator.

"Wait a minute, I see something." Batgirl replied, catching sight of motion in the corner of her eye. Batman began to reply, telling her to stay put, but she just cut the link. She approached a corner carefully, making sure to make as little noise as possible, when, out of nowhere, a cable wraps around her ankle dragging her up into the sky. She let out a little yelp, immediately covering her mouth so as to not alert any potential enemies. Reaching into her utility belt, she pulls out a small knife and cuts the rope, grabbing onto a fire escape on her descent, making her way down at a more cautious pace. She hears a soft clink on behind her and spins around, coming face to face with a person wearing a leather suit, a cape, an added hood and what looked to be a ski mask without any holes for the eyes of mouth. Instincts taking over, she went for a right hook, only to be blocked by the stranger's arm. Narrowly missing a kick to the stranger's stomach, she did a back handspring to gain some distance from her opponent who, to her complete bewilderment, was just standing there, looking at her and making no move to reach for what she assumed was his weapon on his back. Assuming it is a 'him'. A sharp noise was made on her left, distracting her gaze. She found out it was the Batman's grapnel gun hooking on to the ledge, and, returning her gaze to the previous location, found nothing. She stood there, puzzled, until she heard Batman land next to her and a second pair of feet, which she assumed was Robin.

"I told you to wait," Batman said, breaking the silence that had settled, "and you broke direct orders and engaged in what looks to be a fight with air." he said, motioning to her feet, still spread in a fighting stance.

"The weirdest thing just happened." was all that came out of her mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _A/N_

 _So there was my first chapter, constructive criticism welcome._

 _For the "stranger"'s costume, it's like Prometheus from Arrow season 5 without any holes for over the face_ _and it's just one piece of material_

 _There's a poll up on my profile, check it out._


	2. Gotham Academy

Luke Ford hopped out of the his dad's shiny red Lamborghini, making his way to his new school. _Gotham academy, this is gonna' be interesting._ Because it was still too early to start, students were bustling around, talking and studying, with the occasional goofballs playing tag. Luke, a small smile on his face, made sure to examine his surroundings carefully. _**Three visible cameras, one looking at the front courtyard, one at the drop off/pick up, and on on the parking lot**_ _._ If one were looking at his eyes close enough they would notice occasional flashes, blips almost, dancing around his retina. _**Spark, identify dead zones in the cameras' view.**_ Through his eyes, areas on the ground suddenly became pitch black, signaling to him areas that were not being broadcast to the security room. A large beep went through his head as he swerved out the way of an incoming student who wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. _**Spark, download blueprints of the school and all surrounding facilities and plot the fastest escape routes in case of emergency**_ **,** _ **after that go ahead and sleep until I'm done with this school day.**_ "If it would just start already," he muttered under his breath. As if answering him, a loud bell starting ringing, signaling the begin of school.

Most of the day flew by for Luke, he was getting acquainted with how things worked in one of the most prestigious schools in all of Gotham. Of course, coming with that was the downside that the rest of the people here were rich snobs. His first class was math, followed by english and geography. There was a surprise quiz in geography, and even though he was excused by the teacher for having joined in the middle of the semester, he knew he aced it. _Fifteen minutes ahead of everyone_ , he thought smugly, eyeing the clock on the wall. _And I'm not the only one_ he added, his eyes landing on a semi-tanned, girl with dark red hair, looking around 15, who seemed to be in a sleepy haze. Snapping Luke out of his thoughts, the bell rang signaling it was time for lunch. He followed the flow of the students until he was in the cafeteria where he proceeded to pick up his tray and food and sit down in the farthest unoccupied table. While he was eating his thoughts started wondering from, _these people act like they own the world,_ to _man, this steak is really good._ A group of loud, really fake looking, girls started laughing obnoxiously as a look of disgust settled on Luke's face.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets that look on my face when they start gossiping." A feminine voice said, startling Luke. He looked up quickly, seeing the red head from earlier with a dark haired, short boy standing next to her. "Can we sit here?" she asked briefly, a look of curiosity in her eyes.

"Sure," Luke responded, "knock yourself out."

"Gladly," the short boy, who Luke now recognized as Richard Grayson, ward to the famous Bruce Wayne, grumbled, "if they're going to keep giggling like that." This drew a laugh from Luke's lips.

"I couldn't help but notice you got finished with that geography flash quiz pretty fast…." she began, prompting for his name.

"Call me Luke, and yeah, I just made patterns in the answer sheet and hoped for the best." He responded, giving a short chuckle. "I couldn't help but notice that you finished pretty fast as well..." He continued, using the same tactic that she used to get his name.

"Barbara, Barbara Gordon, and this," she says jutting her thumb out to her friend who was now engrossed in his phone, "is Dick." Another chuckle came out of Luke's mouth, earning a glare from said boy. Barbara, clearly enjoying Dick's pain, leaned closed to Luke and whispered "He's a mathlete."

"Hey, I heard that!" Dick pouted.

"Actually, I saw some of her trophies in the hallways," Luke interrupted before Dick could shoot anything back, and added with a bit of a posh accent, "if I do say so myself."

"See! This guy's got the right idea Babs!" He shouted in victory, earning a raised eyebrow from Luke.

"He gets passionate about this." She leans over and whisper again while Dick does some sort of victory dance in his seat.

"And the nickname?" Luke asked, eyebrow still raised.

"Payback for me calling him Pixie Boots." At this it seemed as if Luke's eyebrow reached the top of his forehead

"You know what, I'm not even going to ask." Luke responds, getting up to throw his trash away. The bell rings, and Dick and Barbara both get up at the same time, following Luke to the trash can. On the way there, Luke falls back in step with them and points to the trash can, "Look, there's my ex!" Rolling her eyes, Barbara lets a small smile come on her face.

"We're going to be late for class, meet up outside in the front courtyard after the final bell?" She asks even as she drags Dick away slowly, much to his chagrin.

Chuckling, he responds "Sure!" _I think I am going to like it here_.

Outside in the front courtyard after the final bell rings.

Luke walks out the front doors, tugging on his backpack straps, laden with all his books from the day.

"Hey!" Barbara exclaims, getting his attention. Returning a nod, Luke looks at her noticing something missing.

"No stray puppy this time 'round?"

"No, it's master came and picked it up."

"Such a shame, it looked really helpless."

"Hey," she shouts lightly, hitting his shoulder, "I'm supposed to be the one that makes fun of him!" She could've sworn she saw something change in his eyes, but as soon as it appeared it vanished without a trace. _Weird._ "Anyway, my ride's here," She says while waving at a man in a car waiting in the drop off/pick up zone, "here is my number, and this is Dick's." handing the small piece of paper over to him, she walks away at a brief pace with a small "See ya."

 ** _Spark, scan in these numbers and put them to contacts Barbara and Dick respectively_**. Once a small ding is heard, he walks towards the waiting car, a smirk tugging at his lips.

* * *

 _A/N_

 _If you haven't guessed yet, italics is thoughts, and bold italics is Luke talking to his A,I, (Explained later)_

 _I'm also thinking of making Luke a bit of a flirt._


	3. Flight and Fight

The wind fluttered Batgirl's cape as she watched the alley where the strange encounter happened the night before. Questions raced through her mind as she thought about what happened a few feet below her. " _Who was he? Was it even a he? Why was he -it- following me? It didn't even fight back?"_ She was so absorbed by her thoughts that she didn't the sound of padded feet landing behind her.

"I was starting to get worried, you weren't answering your communicator and your tracking wasn't moving," Robin's voice snapped her back to reality. Though she was a bit startled, she would never admit it.

"I just have so many questions."

"We all do, even Bats, and that in itself should say something."

Batgirl allowed herself a small smile, although it was very short lived. "We should name him."

"Sorry, what?" Robin's face grew incredulous.

"Well, most of Gotham's crazies have named themselves and, on the off-chance he joins them, he hasn't told us what to call him."

"That's assuming that he is a he..."

"I'm pretty sure that it's a he, I have a knack for these kind of things."

"Except for that one time when you had the theory that Robin was actually a girl." Barbara's cheeks flushed at this, the memory of her telling Dick her crazy theory- that Robin was actually a girl disguised to look like a boy- that she so avidly believed in.

"What's that?" Robin says while pointing to what looked like people fleeing from a disaster.

"We should go check it out" Was Barbara's response, and as soon as the words came out of her mouth she was off the building, flying through the air on her grapnel hook. By the time Robin landed on the same roof as her, she was already surveying the scene that was unfolding below. The people running were bank robbers, and no, they were not running from Batman. She knew this because he was patrolling the north side of Gotham while she and Robin had the south side. The question is why were these robbers were running?

Robin turned his head to the side, listening to something. "Do you hear that?"

"It's coming from behind the bank, come on." With that she sprung from her crouched positioned, ran to the edge of the current rooftop she was on and flipped off it, landing in a roll on the next. She kept doing this, changing it up every now and then, until she reached the bank's back entrance. The sight below her enthralled her.

"You seem to be either really excited or-"

"Shh!" She cut him off, pointing to the situation below. "That's _him._ " Her finger stretched out to the sight of the man in black from the other night. He dragged an unconscious thug up to the wall, tied him to it, and then pinned a wanted poster next to the thug's head with one of those lightning bolt-shaped things. He started to walk off when Robin decided it would be a good time to intervene, so with some short hand signals he went to jump down in front of the stranger while Batgirl went around to jump behind him.

Robin mouthed a countdown _"Three.. Two.. One.. Now!"_ and with that he jumped off and landed gracefully in front of the man while Batgirl landed behind him. If the stranger was startled, he didn't show any sign of it. "Keep going like this and we'll be out of jobs." _Silence_ "Not a talker, alright I'll do both sides of the conversation then. Hello fair stranger, welcome to my humble abode that is Gotham City. Although your want to help is appreciated, we can't have any more people getting hurt than necessary, and so we would appreciate it if you would leave the work to the professionals like us." He made his voice deeper and carried on, "Of course, I'll stop now Robin. Gotham's your city and I'll respect that, thank you!"

If the situation wasn't so tense, Batgirl probably would have rolled her eyes. Yet the stranger made no reaction, instead he just carried on walking past Robin.

"Thanks, but no thanks," came a voice that didn't sound human, instead it sounded like a whisper that seemed to come from every direction. It scared Batgirl more than the Bat-glare, and that even sent chills down her spine. Robin seemed to be in the same state as her, until he noticed the stranger start to climb up the fire escape, which he promptly started pursuing, Batgirl close on his tail.

The stranger picked up pace and started running across rooftops, seemingly copying Batgirl's technique. Robin fired his grapnel gun at the strangers leg, but the line hit air when the stranger rolled out the way and of the roof, landing softly in another dark alley. " _Another alley? Can't anybody be a bit more original?"_ was the first thing running through Batgirl's mind, which, considering the situation, was unexpected.

"Got nowhere to run now, buddy." Robin taunted, accompanied by his signature cackle.

"Maybe I was not intending to," came that same whisper, making both Batgirl's and Robin's hair stand on end. After that was probably two minutes of silence, but two the two Bats it felt like forever. Robin, deciding that that was enough, threw a gas pellet down. Seeing this, the stranger tapped what looked like a button on his wrist that made a gadget that Batgirl assumed to be some sort of gas mask cover his mask. Carefully, Robin looked around trying to find the stranger when, out of no-where, he was tripped. He saw a pair of shoes enter his vision and looked up seeing Batgirl offer him a hand. By the time he was up, the gas had mostly cleared away leaving no sign as to where the stranger went.

Watching from a distance, the stranger thought of his next plan. _They haven't called Batman yet, so that's a plus. Looks like I won't be able to escape without being seen, yet I can't stay in the shadows, they'll be scanning this place inch by inch._

"Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Robin!" Batgirl excitedly whispered, nodding her head in the direction of a dark corner, where the shape of a hood could be made out. Slowly, they inched their way toward the hood, only, when they got close enough, to see that it was a cat hunched over that promptly scurried away as soon as possible. Robin turned around as quickly as possible when a small thud was heard behind them, only to be met with a fist to the face. Batgirl reacted by kicking in the direction the fist flew from, making contact with what felt like metal, hands wrapped around said leg and she soon found herself flying towards a concrete wall. Dazed, she saw Robin and the stranger engaged in a grueling fight that looked largely like a stalemate. Robin would throw a punch only to have it be dodged by the stranger who would take a kick at him. Robin would dodge at the last minute and try again and this went on for a while until the stranger got the upper hand and managed to kick him towards where Batgirl was slowly getting up, sending them both back down.

"Who are you?" Came a deep, gravelly voice. Looking up quickly, the stranger saw the looming silhouette of the legendary Batman, cape blowing behind him as the wind blew. The stranger looked up and brought two fingers up to his forehead, saluting and running back into the shadows of the alley. _"Time to try out the new cloaking system,_ _ **Spark, activate experiment CL20.**_ He then stood absolutely still, repeating _"Please work, please work,"_ in his head over and over again as the Dark Knight jumped down from his perch on the rooftop. He first moved towards the stranger, seemingly passing by him as he inspected the shadows. Finding nothing, he moved to his two sidekicks-sorry, _partners-_ who were both standing on shaky legs.

"Was he the person from before?" his question directed to Batgirl, who gave a weak nod. "Get back to the Batcave and take the night off." Nodding, they both walked off, embarrassed by their poor performance.

If either had been paying much attention they would have noticed a shimmer climbing up the fire escape and running off into the night.

* * *

 _A/N_

 _So, kinda proud about this chapter._

 _Tell me what you readers want to see, should I keep this just in Gotham or should I introduce the Team as well?_

 _Any suggestion, leave 'em in the reviews or PM._

 _I have no Beta reader right now and I don't exactly go over my work so it might be a bit sketchy_

 _This authors note is too long, cool._


End file.
